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Ruben Bravo, a PhD student in the Institute for Energy Systems, has won a presentation award at the 3rd Annual Conference in Energy Storage and Its Applications from the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Energy.
Optimising power plant design
The conference covered all aspects of energy storage from electrochemical, thermal and mechanical energy storage to its integration in the wider energy system. In his presentation titled "Integration of energy storage with hybrid solar power plants", Ruben presented his framework for the optimal design of power plants that combine different renewable technologies with energy storage.
Grant award
In addition, Ruben was awarded an ETP Postgraduate and Early Career Researchers Exchange Grant to collaborate with Professor Ricardo Chacartgui's group in the Department of Energetic Engineering at the University of Seville.
The planned project will focus on the design and operational optimisation of a concentrating solar power plant with thermochemical energy storage. This work will build on his previously published framework which will be extended to include thermochemical energy storage.
Future research plans
Supervised by Dr Daniel Friedrich and Dr Harry van der Weijde, Ruben's PhD research is focused on the design and optmisation of reliable sustainable energy systems.
He aims to develop solar plants that combine solar thermal and solar photovoltaic panels with energy storage to deliver dispatachable and renewable energy.
